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Feeling the Bern? Want to make America great again? Either way you slice it, this election has been nothing short of epic so far. With a cast of characters liken to Star Wars, the American public has been entertained non-stop. But all kidding aside, whoever becomes our next president will have a dramatic effect on the future of this country. That being said, do we really have a say?

Let’s start with an overview of what I’m referring to, the Electoral College. The Electoral College is made up of distinguished individuals from both parties, 538 total. These delegates represent the respective state from which they are from. There are also superdelegates, these electors are seated automatically and can choose who they want to vote for. In other words, if they don’t like the candidate that their party has nominated, they don’t have to vote for them. This is where the controversy comes into play.

As you may or may not know, Hilary Clinton has been at the center of plenty of controversy in her own right in regards to the Benghazi situation in which she leaked classified emails from her personal computer.

Anyways, Hilary has herself a total of 505 superdelegates votes EVEN AFTER LOSING in New Hampshire to Sen. Bernie Sanders. So in other words, regardless of her results, she’s still getting the support that counts, and your votes (if you voted for Bernie) couldn’t matter less. And guess what? Bill Clinton is a superdelegate. Any conflict of interest there?

MoveOn.org petition, declares that “race for the Democratic Party nomination should be decided by who gets the most votes, and not who has the most support from party insiders,” and asks superdelegates to “pledge to back the will of the voters.” This petition currently has acquired 161,000 signatures.

So what’s the purpose of this system anyway? How could we, a “democracy”, have something set in place to tarnish the vote of the common population?

Created in 1982 to “improve the party’s mainstream appeal” by giving party insiders more influence and reduce that of “activists”, as Brookings Institution’s Thomas Mann and AEI’s Norman Ornstein wrote in 2008.

A type of “peer review” system to choose the most electable candidate, they wrote, and promotes a sense of unity, making “stronger ties between the party and its elected officials.”

This calls into question if the system we’re currently using is the right one, and how much our votes even count. Personally, it seems like the public opinion is not being properly represented, and that this system is put in place for those in power to remain in power.